From the Sandhill Indians who first called this area home to the New York industrialist, James Bradley, who gave the residential resort its name, Asbury Park has always been a haven for historic happenings and cultural exploration. Much like today, music fans and visitors flocked to Asbury Park as far back as the late 1800s to enjoy live entertainment, including summertime concerts that featured the Atlantic Ocean as their backdrop. These jaunts were enhanced by opportunities to see film and theater at venues owned by media impresario Walter Reade, to browse a cosmopolitan shopping district, and to be invigorated by thrilling Boardwalk offerings and a beautiful mile-long beachfront.
Trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and Asbury Park resident Arthur Pryor.
After expanding in the early 1900s, Asbury Park’s popularity grew, and the city continued to thrive well into the 1960s. Performers and artists made Asbury Park unique among its Jersey Shore rivals as the city nurtured the budding talent of actors such as Cesar Romero, Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson and musicians Lenny Welch, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi and more recently, Nicole Atkins. It also provided a backdrop for artist Ida Libby Dengrove, a haven for authors Lowell Thomas and Fred Cook, and was home to poet Margaret Widdemer when she won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
While the turmoil of the 1960s and ‘70s halted Asbury Park’s once-rapid evolution, the city’s heritage of music, cuisine, and building design continued to progress. To the delight of many, Asbury Park emerged in the 21st century as a stage for original music and a canvas for inspired artists even as it provided the foodie with indulgent meals and architects with period details to emulate.
Cubas' Spanish Tavern, a famous nightclub on Springwood Ave.
Asbury Park’s culinary renaissance has seen the arrival of sushi, Latin-infused cuisine, American-fusion and Mediterranean-flavored menus. Lake, Cookman, Mattison Avenues, together with Main Street, come alive with restaurant and bar-goers eager to try the latest dining experiences. Many popular eateries are housed in newly renovated pavilions along a handsomely restored Boardwalk. Supporting an industry that has so greatly impacted the city, Asbury Park currently has a regionally renowned Culinary Arts Program to accompany its public education system.
 Mrs. Jay's Family restaurant on Ocean Ave. would later become the Stone Pony.
The architectural gems that line the city’s streets attract visitors year-round. Celebrated New York architect Whitney Warren gave Asbury Park an exuberantly decorative Beaux Arts design for the Paramount Theatre and Convention Hall complex on Ocean Avenue. His second building is the weirdly fantastical Casino Carousel House overlooking Wesley Lake. His third is the more spare Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel. These landmarks visually define Asbury Park while helping to bridge the city’s past with its future.
From Italy came the richly diverse neoclassical style. It is seen in a wide range of buildings from churches along Grand Avenue to downtown banks, the United States Post Office and The Steinbach, to the high school. Built in 1927, this academic compound boasts a Roman amphitheater for its track and football stadium and its northern boundary opens to Deal Lake. Aspiring architects find here an ideal laboratory for studying the dialogue between country and urban design. A frequent side trip is to the city library to gaze at the stunning stained glass windows made by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Arial view of Asbury Park High School and Deal Lake
Asbury Park’s residential neighborhoods, though, claim the most diverse collection: Queen Anne and Gothic Victorian, Craftsman bungalow, Art Deco, Spanish Revival, Moderne, and Seashore Colonial. The teenage home of journalist Stephen Crane is Second Empire and is now open as a museum and performance space. Could there be more? The Asbury Park Homeowners Association proudly invites guests to find out the last Sunday of every April. Architecture and interior décor enthusiasts spend a charming afternoon discovering the legacy of Frank Bodine, Cleverdon & Putzel, Clarence Brazer, T.A. Roberts, and the city’s own father-son partnership of William and Arthur Cottrell.
Stephen Crane House located at 508 Fourth Avenue built in 1878
Perhaps most integral to Asbury Park’s history and its 21st century resurgence is music. Music lives in Asbury Park. It’s in the simple sounds of a lullaby and the emotive verses of a gospel hymn. It’s in the complex orchestrations for a symphony and in the rock-and-roll sounds that blend horns with strings and percussion. People have been coming to Asbury Park to listen to music since the days when Founder Bradley sponsored summertime band concerts on the Boardwalk; it’s a tradition that continues to this day. Bradley’s best investment was in ragtime composer Arthur Pryor of Missouri who made the decision to locate his touring band here on the Jersey Shore even as city resident Louis Miraglia was laying the groundwork to establish the Monmouth Symphony, one of the county’s oldest cultural institutions. Today, legendary venues like the Stone Pony and popular clubs like The Saint, Asbury Lanes and Chico’s House of Jazz, draw musicians to find their voice and be inspired from the artists who came before them. In a city that historically, and enthusiastically, embraced vaudeville, the ReVision Theatre continues the proud tradition of musical theater.
The city will always be a place where music lives, imaginative menus lure the adventurous, and where iconic architecture frames the landscape. This is history’s legacy. This is the heritage of Asbury Park.
Helen-Chantal Pike, author
"Images of America: Asbury Park"
"Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort"
For more information, please visit: www.helenpike.com
Hear what Helen has to say about Asbury Park at: http://www.myspace.com/helenpikepodcasts, www.asja.org
Or, view her videos at: http://www.YouTube.com/helencpike |
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